Written by Poppy McPherson and Banu Wongcha
BANGKOK (Reuters) – A jailed gambling tycoon fighting extradition to China received “inhumane treatment” in a Thai prison after claiming he was a Chinese spy, his lawyers told Interpol, saying they feared for his life.
Chinese-born He Chueyang, who has Cambodian citizenship, suffered violence that left him unable to stand and receiving unwanted visits from Chinese officials, the lawyers said in a letter to Interpol seen by Reuters.
The mogul was arrested in Bangkok in 2022 on an international warrant and an Interpol red notice requested by Beijing, which accuses him of operating illegal online gambling operations in Southeast Asia. She and his lawyer said the case was politically motivated.
In their letter to Interpol, dated January 9 and shared with Reuters, the lawyers said he remained in solitary confinement, bound in chains, refused medical treatment due to a spinal injury and denied contact with his family.
The mogul was subjected to “inhumane treatment” and human rights abuses of an “institutional nature,” the lawyers, Clara Gerard Rodriguez and Pierre-Olivier Sur of France-based FTMS Avocats, wrote.
“These elements lead us to seriously fear for our client's life,” the lawyers added.
China's Foreign Ministry told Reuters in a statement that she was a Chinese national and a “key figure in online gambling and telecommunications fraud crimes,” saying the evidence against him was “conclusive.”
She welcomed a decision by Thai courts to extradite him, calling the move an important achievement in Thai-Chinese law enforcement cooperation. It's lawyers appealing the extradition ruling.
Thailand's Ministry of Justice declined to comment, referring questions to the Ministry of Correction, which did not immediately respond.
“An Interpol Red Notice must comply with the organization’s rules,” an Interpol spokesperson said, “under activity of a political, military, religious or racial nature.”
Trafficking unions
She said last year that his detention followed his refusal to obey orders from Chinese authorities, who he said ordered him to develop a town on the Thai border.
“They wanted a colony,” she told Al Jazeera in a documentary on September 26. “I wanted to do business.”
China has stepped up on Southeast Asian countries to crack down on Chinese gambling and scam rings since the cross-border kidnapping and rescue of a Chinese actor this month led to a social media firestorm.
The region has in recent years become a magnet for gambling operations, some involving fraud and human trafficking by criminal syndicates, many of Chinese origin.
Days after the documentary Al Jazeera aired, she was transferred to a maximum security prison in Bangkok that holds people serving long sentences and at the time of execution.
In late October, the attorneys said, she was “manhandled” by officers and inmates who accused him of violating discipline. Unable to walk or stand, they said he now uses a wheelchair. The incident was also described in a police report seen by Reuters.
Twice in December, Chinese embassy officials visited her in prison against his will, seeking to persuade him to return to China, the lawyers said. At one meeting, officials suggested that his family and friends might need help from the embassy, which he interpreted as a threat, they said.
Gambling empire
She is a lawyer seeking to quash the Interpol Red Notice requesting its delivery.
“China's flagrant operation violations and gross human rights abuses undermine international judicial cooperation, and must be an obstacle to extradition,” Gerard Rodriguez told Reuters.
Reuters could not independently verify the claims.
At the time of his arrest, he headed a gambling empire that developed a $15 billion entertainment and tourism complex called Shwe Kokko on the border in Myanmar's Tai. The group, Yatai International Holdings Group, also has investments in Cambodia and the Philippines.
The company denied involvement in any criminal activities, including human trafficking.
The mogul told Al Jazeera that he was recruited in the Philippines by China's Ministry of State Security, the main agency that oversees foreign intelligence, in exchange for a criminal case against him being dropped.
Chinese Ministry of State Security could not be reached with a request for comment.
She said he worked alongside a former mayor in the Philippines, Alice Guo, also known as Chinese nationalist Guo Huaping. She was removed from the position for misconduct and investigated by the Philippine Senate last year over possible ties to offshore gambling operations targeting Chinese customers.
Guo, who faces graft and money laundering charges, has denied being a Chinese spy and dismissed other accusations as malicious.
